Contact

Background

My main instructional goal is to inspire students to ask "why?" I want students to really interrogate their own assumptions and how they interact with the world and the institutional systems of which they are a part. So often in education, and in life, we get stuck in a rut, doing things the way they've always been done. Sometimes that's because it is actually the best way but often it's because we haven't critically examined "the why."

My primary areas of interest for research and teaching are education law and policy, particularly as they pertain to issues of equity. Specifically, my research focuses on issues of race and religion in public schools. I am also delving into a new area of research in higher education on collegiality in the professoriate.

Experience

I received my J.D. from the University of Tennessee in 2004 where I served as Managing Editor of the Tennessee Law Review. After practicing as a civil litigator and serving as a municipal and community development volunteer in the United States Peace Corps, I received my Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Policy from the University of Georgia in 2013. I am currently the Associate Editor-in-Chief for the Education Law and Policy Review and am an active member of the Education Law Association (ELA), American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA).

Publications

Blankenship-Knox, A.E. (2017). White, queer and female: Using intersectionality as a tool for teaching social justice in the Deep South. Whiteness and Education, doi: 10.1080/23793406.2017.1360749

DeBray, E. & Blankenship, A.E. (2016). Forward: The aftermath of ESSA’s devolution of power to states: A federal role in incentivizing equity and building state and local capacity. Education Law and Policy Review, 3, ix-xxvii.

Locke, L. & Bankenship, A.E. (2016). Keeping the flames at bay: The interplay between federal oversight and state politics in Tucson’s Mexican American Studies Program. Journal of Educational Controversy, 10(1).

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gender, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or other legally-protected characteristic in its programs and
activities. Read the Notice of Nondiscrimination here.